# Minster Lovell Hall Legends: Three Dreadful Dooms

> Explore three grim legends of Minster Lovell Hall by the River Windrush, from Viscount Lovell's hidden skeleton to the tragic Mistletoe Bough ballad.

URL: https://cotswolds.info/strange-things/dreadful-doom.shtml  
Section: Strange Things  
Location: Minster Lovell Hall, Oxfordshire (51.799, -1.535)  
Last updated: 2021-02-11

## Dreadful Dooms at Minster Lovell Hall

The Romantic ruins of Minster Lovell Hall stand in water meadows next to the River Windrush on the edge of quaint Minster Lovell village.

![The romantic ruins of Minster Lovell Hall](https://cotswolds.info/images/strangethings/minster_lovell_hall.jpg)

The Hall was built in the 15th century for Francis, Viscount Lovell, a close friend of King Richard III.

Lovell fought with King Richard in the Wars of the Roses, escaping from the enemy at the battle of Stoke after which he was never seen again.

According to rumour he fled to his Cotswold home where he staid hidden until he starved to death. The story was confirmed in 1708 when a human skeleton was found in an underground room at the Hall.

A second rumour soon existed which was a bit more colourful and recorded in 1884 as a ballad of four verses known as _The Ballad of the Mistletoe Bough_ - a tragic tale ending in the following sad lines:-

> _O how sad her fate! In sportive jest
> She hid from her lord in the dark old chest
> It closed with spring - and dreadful doom
> The bride lay clasp'd in her living tombe._

The third dreadful doom to take place was that one of the subsequent purchasers of the Hall for some inexplicable reason decided to pull down the beautiful building and raze it to the ground!

## Three Dreadful Dooms at Minster Lovell

This page last modified Thursday, 11-Feb-2021 13:25:08 CET